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TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS, 



A.D. I. AND MDCCCLV. 



CHRISTMAS STORY 



MDCCCLVI. 

/ 
By THEODORE I'ARKER, 

Minister of the i%th Congregational Society of Boston. 



„_;£A^A^ 



BOSTON: 

RUFUS LEIGHTON, Jr 

1859. 



T5z5zo 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, ^7 

RuFus Leighton, Jr., 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of 

Massachusetts. 



Rmerslde, Cambridge : 
Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



A GREAT many years ago, Augustus Csesar, then 
Emperor of Rome, ordered his mighty reahn to 
be taxed; and so, in Judea, it is said, men went 
to the towns where their families belonged, to 
be registered for assessment. From Nazareth, a 
little town in the north of Judea, to Bethlehem, 
another little but more famous town in the south, 
there went one Joseph, the carpenter, and his wife 
Mary, — obscure and poor people, both of them, 
as the story goes. At Bethlehem they lodged in 
a stable ; for there were many persons in the town, 
and the tavern was full. Then* and there a little 
boy was born, the son of this Joseph and Mary ; 
they named him Jehoshua, a common Hebrew 
name, which we commonly call Joshua; but, in 
his case, we pronounce it Jesus. They laid him 
in the crib of the cattle, which was his first 



4 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

cradle. That was the first Christmas, kept thus 
in a barn, 1856 years ago. Nobody knows the 
day or the month ; nay, the year itself is not cer- 
tain. 

After a while the parents went home to Naz- 
areth, where they had other sons, — James ^ Joses, 
Si?no72, and Judas, — and daughters also; nobody 
knows how many. There the boy Jesus grew 
up, and it seems followed the calling of his 
father; it is said, in special, that he made yokes, 
ploughs, and other farm-tools. Little is known 
about his early life and means of education. His 
outside advantages were, no doubt, small and poor ; 
but he learned to read and write, and it seems 
became familiar with the chief religious books 
of his nation, which are still preserved in the 
Old Testament. 

At that time there were three languages used 
in Judea, beside the Latin, which was confined 
to a few officials: 1. The Syro-Chaldaic, — the 
language of business and daily life, the spoken 
language of the common people. 2. The Greek, 
— the language of the courts of justice and official 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 5 

documents ; the spoken and written language of the 
foreign traders, the aristocracy, and most of the 
more cultivated people in the great towns. 3. The 
old Hebrew, — the written and spoken language of 
the learned, of theological schools, of the priests ; 
the language of the Old Testament. It seems 
Jesus understood all three. 

At that time the thinking people had outgrown 
the old forms of religion, inherited from their 
fathers, just as a little girl becomes too stout and 
tall for the clothes which once fitted her babyhood; 
or as the people of New England have now 
become too rich and refined to live in the rough 
log-cabins, and to wear the coarse, uncomfortable 
clothes, which were the best that could be got 
two hundred years ago. For mankind continually 
grows wiser and better, — and so the old forms 
of religion are always getting passed by; and the 
religious doctrines and ceremonies of a rude age 
cannot satisfy the people of an enlightened age, 
any more than the wigwams of the Pequod In- 
dians in 1656 would satisfy the white gentlemen 
and ladies of Boston and Worcester in 1856. 



6 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

The same thing happens with the clothes, the 
tools, and the laws of all advancing nations. The 
human race is at school, and learns through one 
book after another, — going up to higher and 
higher studies continually. But at that time 
cultivated men had outgrown their old forms of 
religion, — much of the doctrine, many of the 
ceremonies ; and yet they did not quite dare to 
break away from them, — at least in public. So 
there was a great deal of pretended belief, and 
of secret denial of the popular form of religion. 
The best and most religious men, it seems likely, 
were those who had least faith in what was 
preached and practised as the authorized religion 
of the land. 

In the time of David, many years before the 
birth of Jesus, the Hebrew nation had been very 
powerful and prosperous; afterwards there fol- 
lowed long periods of trouble and of war, civil 
and domestic ; the union of the tribes was dis- 
solved, and many calamities befell the people. In 
their times of trouble, religious men said, " God 
will raise us up a great King like David, to de- 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 7 

fend and deliver us from our enemies. He will 
set all things right." For the Hebrews looked on 
David as the Americans on Washington, calling 
him a " man after God's own heart," — that is, 
thinking him " first in war, first in peace, and first 
in the hearts of his countrymen." Sometimes they 
called this expected Deliverer, the Messiah, that 
is the Anointed One, — a term often applied to 
a king or other great man. Sometimes it was 
thought this or that special man, a king, or gen- 
eral, would be the Messiah, and deliver the nation 
from its trouble. Thus, it seems, that once it was 
declared that King Hezekiah would perform this 
duty; and indeed Cyrus, a foreigner, a king of 
Persia, was declared to be the Messiah, the Anoint- 
ed One. But, at other times, they, who declared 
the Deliverer would come, seem to have had no 
particular man in their mind, but felt sure that 
somebody would come. At length the expecta- 
tion of a Messiah became quite common; it was 
a fixed fact in the public opinion. But some 
thought the Deliverer, the Redeemer, the second 
David, would be one thing, some another; just 



8 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

as men now call their favorite candidate for the 
presidency a second Washington ; but some think 
he will be a Whig, and support the Fugitive 
Slave Bill ; some, a Dem.ocrat, and favor the en- 
slavement of Kansas ; while others are sure he will 
be a Republican, and prohibit the extension of 
Slavery ; while yet others look for some Anointed 
Politician to abolish that wicked institution clear 
out from the land. 

When the nation was in great peril, the people 
said, " the Messiah will soon come and restore all 
things ; " but probably they had no very definite 
notion about the Deliverer or the work he was 
to do. 

When Jesus was about thirty years old, he be- 
gan to speak in public. He sometimes preached 
in the Meeting-Houses, which were called Syna- 
gogues, — but often out of doors, wherever he could 
gather the people about him. He broke away 
from the old established doctrines and forms. He 
was a come-outer from the Hebrew church. He 
told men that religion did not consist in opinions 
or ceremonies, but in right feelings and right ac- 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 9 

tions; that goodness shown to men was worth 
more than sacrifice offered to God. In short he 
made ReHgion consist in Piety, which is Love to 
God, and Benevolence, which is Love to Men. He 
utterly forbid all vengeance, and told his followers 
" love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
which despitefuUy use you and persecute you." He 
taught that the soul was immortal, — a common 
opinion at that time, — and declared that men 
who had been good and kind here would be eter- 
nally happy hereafter, but the unkind and wicked 
would be cast " into everlasting fire prepared for 
the devil and his angels." He did not represent 
religion as a mysterious affair, the mere business 
of the priesthood, limited to the temple and the 
Sabbath, and the ceremonies thereof; it was the 
business of every day, — a great manly and wom- 
anly life. 

Men were looking for the Anointed, the Mes- 
siah, and waiting for him to come. Jesus said, 
" I am the Messiah ; follow me in the religious 
life, and all will be well. God is just as near to 
2 



lO TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

US now, as of old time to Moses and Eli as. 
A greater than Solomon is here. The Kingdom of 
Heaven, a good time coming, is close at hand ! " 

No doubt he made mistakes. He taught that 
there is a devil, — a being absolutely evil, who 
seeks to ruin all men ; that the world would soon 
come to an end, and a new and extraordinary 
state would miraculously take place, in which his 
followers would be abundantly rewarded, and his 
twelve most conspicuous friends would " sit on 
twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
Strange things were to happen in this good time 
which was coming. But spite of that, his main 
doctrine, which he laid most stress upon, was, that 
religion is piety and benevolence; for he made 
these the chief commandments, — " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" 

He went about in various parts of the coun- 
try, talking, preaching, lecturing, making speeches, 
and exhorting the people to love each other and 
live a noble, manly life, — each doing to all as he 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. n 

would wish them to do to him. He recom- 
mended the most entire trust in God. The people 
came to him in great crowds, and loved to hear 
him speak ; for in those days nobody preached 
such doctrines, — or indeed any doctrines with such 
power to convince and persuade earnest men. The 
people heard him gladly, and followed him from 
place to place, and could not hear enough of him 
and his new form of religion, — so much did it 
commend itself to simple-hearted ,Women and men. 
Some of them wanted to make him their king. 
But while the people loved him, the great men 
of his time — the great Ministers in the Hebrew 
church, and the great Politicians in the Hebrew 
state — hated him, and were afraid of him. No 
doubt some of these ministers did not understand 
him, but yet meant well in their opposition ; for if 
a man had all his life been thinking about the "best 
manner of circumcision," or about " the mode of 
kneeling in prayer," he would be wholly unable 
to understand what Jesus said about love to God 
and to man. But no doubt some of them knew 
he was right, and hated him all the more for that 



12 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS, 

very reason. When they talked in their libraries, 
they admitted that they had no faith in the old 
forms of religion; but when they appeared in 
public they made broad their phylacteries, and 
enlarged the borders of their garments ; and when 
they preached in their pulpits, they laid heavy bur- 
dens on men's shoulders, and grievous to be borne. 
The same thing probably took place then which 
has happened ever since ; and they who had no 
faith in God or man, were the first to accuse this 
religious genius with being an infidel! 

So, one night they seized Jesus, tried him before 
daylight next morning, condemned him, and put 
him to death. The seizure, the trial, the execu- 
tion, were not effected in the regular legal form, — 
they did not occupy more than twelve hours of 
time, — but were done in the same wicked way 
that evil men also used in Boston when they made 
Mr. Simms and Mr. Burns slaves for life. But 
Jesus made no resistance ; at the " trial " there was 
no " defence;" nay, he did not even feel angry with 
those wicked men ; but, as he hung on the cross, 
almost the last words he uttered were these, — 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



13 



" Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." Such wicked men killed Jesus, just as in 
Old England, three hundred years ago, the Catholics 
used to burn the Protestants alive; or as in New 
England, two hundred years ago, our Protestant 
fathers hung the Quakers and whipped the Bap- 
tists ; or as the Slaveholders in the South now beat 
an Abolitionist, or whip a man to death who insists 
on working for himself and his family, and not 
merely for men who only steal what he earns ; or 
as some in Massachusetts, a few years ago, sought 
to put in jail such as speak against the wickedness 
of Slavery. 

After Jesus was dead and buried, some of his 
followers thought that he rose from the dead and 
came back to life again within three days, and 
showed himself to a few persons here and there, — 
coming suddenly and then vanishing, as a " ghost " 
is said to appear all at once and then vanish, or as 
the souls of other dead men are thought to "ap- 
pear " to the spiritualists, who do not, however, see 
the ghosts, but only hear and feel them. Very 
strange stories were told about his coming to men 



14 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



through closed doors, and talking with them, — 
just as in our time the "mediums" say the soul 
of Dr. Franklin, or Dr. Channing, or some great 
man comes and makes "spiritual communications." 
They say, that at last, he " was parted from them, 
and carried up into heaven," and " sat on the right 
hand of God." 

His friends and followers went about from place 
to place, and preached his doctrines ; but gradually 
added many more of their own. They said that he 
was the Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ, who was 
foretold in the Old Testament, and that did strange 
things called Miracles; that at a marriage feast, 
where wine was wanted, he changed several barrels 
of water into wine of excellent quality; that he 
fed five thousand men with five loaves, walked on 
the water, opened the eyes, ears, and mouths of 
men born blind, deaf, and dumb, and at a touch 
or a word brought back a maimed limb. They 
called him a Saviour, sent from God to redeem 
the Jews, and them only, from eternal damnation ; 
next, said that he was the Saviour of all mankind, 
— Jews and Gentiles too ; that he was a Sacrifice 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



15 



offered to appease the wrath of God, who had 
become so angry with his children that he intended 
to torment them all forever in hell. By and by his 
followers were called Christians, — that is, men 
who took Jesus for the Christ of the Old Testa- 
ment; and in their preaching they did not make 
much account of the noble ideas Jesus taught about 
man, God, and religion, or of his own great manly 
life ; but they thought his death was the great 
thing, — and that was the means to save men from 
eternal torment. Then they went further, and de- 
clared that Jesus was not the son of Joseph and 
Mary, but the Son of God and Mary, — miracu- 
lously born ; next, that he was God's only son, 
who had never had any child before, and never 
would have another ; again, that he was a God who 
had lived long before Jesus was born, but for the 
then first time took the human form; and at last, 
that he was the only God, the Creator and Prov- 
idence of all the universe ; but was man also, the 
God-man. Thus, gradually, the actual facts of his 
history were lost out of sight, overgrown with a 
great mass of fictions, poetic and other stories. 



l6 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

which make him a mythological character ; the 
Jesus of fact was well-nigh forgot, — the Christ of 
fiction took his place. 

Well, after the death of Jesus, his followers 
went from town to town, from country to coun- 
try, preaching " Christ and him crucified ; " they 
taught that the world would soon end, for Jesus 
would come back and "judge the world," raising 
the dead, — and then all who had believed in him 
would be " saved," but the rest would be " lost 
forever ; " a new world would take the place of 
the old, and the Christians would have a good 
time in that Kingdom of Heaven. This new 
" spiritual world " would contain some extraor- 
dinary things : thus, " every grape-vine would have 
ten thousand trunks, every trunk ten thousand 
branches, every branch ten thousand twigs, every 
twig ten thousand clusters, every cluster ten thou- 
sand grapes, and every grape would yield twenty- 
five kilderkins of wine." 

But everywhere they recommended a life of 
sobriety and self-denial, of industry and of kind 
deeds, — a life of religion. Everywhere the Chris- 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



17 



tians were distinguished for their charity and gen- 
eral moral excellence. But the Jews hated them, 
and drove them away ; the Heathens hated them, 
and put many to death with dreadful tortures; 
all the magistrates were hostile. But when the 
common people saw a man or a woman come out 
and die rather than be false to a religious emotion 
or idea, there were always some who said, " That 
is a strange thing, — a man dying for his God. 
There must be something in that religion ! Let 
us also become Christians." So the new doctrine 
spread wide; not the simple religion of Jesus, — 
piety and morality; but what his followers called 
Christianity, — a mixture of good and evil. In two 
or three hundred years it had gone round the civil- 
ized world. Other forms of religion fell to pieces, 
one by one. Judaism went down with the He- 
brew people. Heathenism went down, and Chris- 
tianity took their place. The son of Joseph and 
Mary, born in a stable, and killed by the Jews, was 
worshipped as the Only God all round the civil- 
ized world. The new form of religion spread very 
much as Spiritualism has done in our time, only 
3 



l8 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

in the midst of worse persecution than the Mor- 
mons have suffered. At this day there are some two 
hundred and sixty miUions of people who worship 
Jesus of Nazareth; most of them think he was 
God, the only God. But a small number of men 
believe that he was no God, no miraculous person, 
but a good man with a genius for religion. All 
the Christians think he was full of all manner of 
loving kindness and tender mercy. So all over the 
world to-day, among the two hundred and sixty 
millions of Christians, there is great rejoicing on 
account of his birth, which it is erroneously sup- 
posed took place on the 25th of December, in the 
year one. They sing psalms, and preach sermons, 
and offer prayers, and make a famous holiday. But 
the greater part of the people think only of the 
festival, and very little of the noble boy who was 
born so long ago in a tavern-barn in Judea. And 
of all the ministers who talk so much about the 
old Christ, there are not many who would welcome 
a new man who should come and do for this age 
the great service which Jesus did for his own time. 
But, as on the Fourth of July, slaveholders, and 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



19 



border ruffians, and kidnappers, and men who 
believe there is no higher law, ring their bells, 
and fire their cannons, and let off their rockets, 
making more noise than all those who honor and 
defend the great Principles of Humanity which 
make Independence Day famous, — so on Christ- 
mas, not only rehgious people, but Scribes, and 
Pharisees, and Hypocrites make a great talk about 
" Christ and him crucified ; " when, if a man of 
genius for religion were now to appear, they 
would be the first to call out "Infidel !" "Infidel !" 
and would kill him if it were possible or safe. 

Well, one rainy Sunday evening, in iSj'j', just 
twelve days before Christmas, in the little town 
of Soitgoes, in Worcester County, Mass., Aunt 
Kindly and Uncle Nathan were sitting in their 
comfortable parlor before a bright wood- fire. It 
was about eight o'clock, a stormy night ; now it 
snowed a little, then it rained, then snowed again, 
seeming as if the weather was determined on some 
kind of a storm, but had not yet made up its mind 
for snow, rain, or hail. Now the wind roared in 



20 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

the chimney, and started out of her sleep a great 
tortoise-shell cat, that lay on the rug which Aunt 
Kindly had made for her. Tabby opened her 
yellow eyes suddenly, and erected her smellers^ but 
finding it was only the wind and not a mouse that 
made the noise, she stretched out a great paw and 
yawned, and then cuddled her head down so as 
to show her white throat, and went to sleep again. 

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kindly were brother 
and sister. He was a little more than sixty, a fine, 
hale, hearty-looking, handsome man as you could 
find in a summer's day, with white hair and a 
thoughtful, benevolent face, adorned with a full 
beard as white as his venerable head. Aunt Kindly 
was five-and-forty or thereabouts ; her face a little 
sad when you looked at it carelessly in its repose, 
but commonly it seemed cheerful, full of thought 
and generosity, and handsome withal; for, as her 
brother told her, " God administered to you the 
sacrament of beauty in your childhood, and you 
will walk all your life in the loveliness thereof" 

Uncle Nathan had been an India merchant from 
his twenty-fifth to about his fiftieth year, and had 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 21 

now, for some years, been living with his sister in 
his fine, large house, — rich and well educated, de- 
voting his life to study, works of benevolence, to 
general reform and progress. It was he who had 
the first anti-slavery lecture delivered in the town, 
and actually persuaded Mr. Homer, the old minis- 
ter, to let Mr. Garrison stand in the pulpit on a 
Wednesday night and preach deliverance unto the 
captives ; but it could be done only once, for the 
clergymen of the neighborhood thought anti-sla- 
very a desecration of their new wooden meeting- 
houses. It was he, too, who asked Lucy Stone to 
lecture on woman's rights, but the communicants 
thought it would not do to let a " woman speak 
in the church," and so he gave it up. All the 
country knew and loved him, for he was a natural 
overseer of the poor, and guardian of the widow 
and the orphan. How many a girl in the Normal 
School every night put up a prayer of thanksgiv- 
ing for him ; how many a bright boy in Hanover 
and Cambridge was equally indebted for the means 
of high culture, and if not so thankful, why, Uncle 
Nathan knew that gratitude is too nice and deli- 



22 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

cate a plant to grow on common soil. Once, when 
he was twenty-two or three, he was engaged to 
a young woman of Boston, while he was a clerk 
in a commission store. But her father, a skipper 
from Beverly or Cape Cod, who continued vulgar 
while he became rich, did not like the match. " It 
won't do," said he, " for a poor young man to 
marry into one of our fust families ; what is the 
use of aristocracy if no distinction is to be made, 
and our daughters are to marry Tom, Dick, and 
Harry ? " But Amelia took the matter sorely to 
heart ; she kept her love, yet fell into a consump- 
tion, and so wasted away; or, as one of the neigh- 
bors said, " she was executed on the scaffold of an 
upstart's vulgarity." Nathan loved no woman in 
like manner afterwards, but after her death went 
to India, and remained years long. When he re- 
turned and established his business in Boston, he 
looked after her relations, who had fallen into pov- 
erty. Nay, out of the mire of infamy he picked 
up what might have been his nephews and nieces, 
and, by generous breeding, wiped off from them the 
stain of their illicit birth. He never spoke of poor 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



^3 



Amelia ; but he kept a little locket in one end of 
his purse ; none ever saw it but his sister, who often 
observed him sitting with it in his hand, and hour 
by hour looking into the fire of a winter's night, 
seeming to think on distant things. She never 
spoke to him then, but left him alone with his 
recollections and his dreams. Some of the neigh- 
bors said he " worshipped it;" others called it "a 
talisman." So indeed it was, and by its enchant- 
ment he became a young man once more, and 
walked through the moonlight to meet an angel, 
and with her enter their kingdom of heaven. 
Truly it was a talisman; yet if you had looked 
at it, you would have seen nothing in it but a little 
twist of golden hairs tied together with a blue 
silken thread. 

Aunt Kindly had never been married ; yet once 
in her life, also, the right man seemed to offer, and 
the blossom of love opened with a dear prophetic 
fragrance in her heart. But as her father was soon 
after struck with palsy, she told her lover they 
must wait a little while, for her first duty must be 
to the feeble old man. But the impatient swain 



24 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

went off and pinned himself to the flightiest Httle 
humming-bird in all Soitgoes, and in a month was 
married, having a long life before him for bitterness 
and repentance. After the father died, Kindly 
remained at home ; and when Nathan returned, 
years after, they made one brotherly and sisterly 
household out of what might else have gladdened 
two connubial homes. " Not every bud becomes 
a flower." 

Uncle Nathan sat there, his locket in his hand, 
looking into the fire; and as the wind roared in 
the chimney, and the brands crackled and snapped, 
he thought he saw faces in the fire ; and when 
the sparks rose up in a little cloud, which the 
country children call " the people coming out of 
the meeting-house," he thought he saw faces in the 
fire ; they seemed to take the form of the boys and 
girls as he had lately seen them rushing out of the 
Union School-house, which held all the children in 
the village ; and as he recognized one after the 
other, he began to wonder and conjecture what 
would be the history of this or that particular 
child. While he sat thus in his waking dream. 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



25 



he looked fixedly at the locket and the blue thread 
which tied together those golden rays of a summer 
sun, now all set and vanished and gone, but which 
was once the morning light of all his promised 
days ; and as his eyes, full of waking dreams, fell 
on the fire again, a handsome young woman seemed 
to come forth from between the brands, and the 
locks of her hair floated out and turned into boys 
and girls, of various ages, from babyhood to youth ; 
all looking somewhat like him and also like the 
fair young woman. But the brand rolled over, and 
they all vanished in a little puff of smoke. 

Aunt Kindly sat at the table reading the Bible. 
I don't know why she read the Gospels, for she 
knew them all four by heart, and could repeat 
them from end to end. But Sunday night, when 
none of the neighbors were there, and she and 
Nathan were all alone, she took her mother's great 
square Bible and read therein. This night she had 
been reading, in chapter xxxi. of Proverbs, the 
character of a noble woman ; and, finishing the 
account, turned and read the 28th verse a second 
time, — 

4 



26 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

*' f^tr: cljtltrcen rise up antr call ijet lilessetr.'* 

I do not know why she read that verse, nor what 
she thought of it; but she repeated it to herself 
three or four times, — 

*' f^tt tijilTiten rise up anTr call Ijer iJlessetr/^ 

As she was taking up the venerable old volume 
to lay it away for the night, it opened by accident 
at Luke xiv., and her eye fell on verses 12, 13 — 

" J3ut tofjen tf)ou mafeest a tJinuer or a supper, 
call not t!)g frirntfs nor t^s lJretl)ren, neither tijs 
feinsmen nor t^s ricl^ neigpor, lest Vi)ts also call 
tljee again, antr a recompense te ntatre tljee, J3ut 
toljen tijou maifeest a feast, call tlje poor, tije maimetr, 
tlje lame, tfje tlintr ; antr tijou sljalt Ije tilessetr ; for 
tljeg cannot recompense t^tt,** 

She sat a moment recollecting that Jesus said, — 

** Suffer little cljiltrren to come unto me, antr f or= 
tJiti t!)em not, for of suet is tlje ttingtiom of i^eaijen ; '' 

and had also denounced woe on all such as cause 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



27 



these little ones to offend, and declared that in 
heaven their angels continually behold the face of 
the Father. 

After a few minutes she turned to Nathan, who 
had replaced the brands in hopes to bring back 
the vision by his " faculty divine," and said, — 
" Brother, I wonder if it would not be better 
to make a little change in our way of keeping 
Christmas. It is a good thing to call together 
the family once a year, — our brothers and sisters 
and nephews and nieces, — we all of us love the 
children so much, and have a good time. I would 
not give that up. The dinner is very well; but 
the evening goes off a little heavy ; that whist 
playing, we both dislike it ; so much talk about 
such trifles. What if we should have a Child's 
Festival on Christmas night, and ask all the little 
folks in the town to your nice New Hall, — it will 
be done before that time, won't it? It will be a 
good christening for it; and Mr. Garrison, whom 
you have asked to speak there on New-Year's day, 
will like it all the better if baptized by these little 
ones, who ' are of the kingdom of heaven.' Surely 



28 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

little children may run before the great Liber- 
ator." 

" Just what I was thinking of," said Uncle Na- 
than; "as I looked at the sparks of fire, I was 
saying to myself, ' I have not quite done my duty 
to the boys and girls in Soitgoes.' You and I," 
said he, rather sadly, putting the locket in his purse 
and pressing the gold ring gently down on it, " you 
and I have no children. But I sometimes feel like 
adopting all the boys and girls in the parish ; and 
when I saw that great troop of them come out 
of the school-house last week, I felt a little re- 
proach, that, while looking after their fathers and 
mothers, I had not done more for the children." 

" I am sure you gave the town that great new 
school-house," said Kindly. 

"Yes, that's nothing. I furnished the money 
and the general idea; Eliot Cabot drew the plan, 
— capital plan it is too ; and Jo Atkins took the 
job. I paid the bills. But how will you arrange 
it for Christmas ? " 

" Well," said Kindly, who had an organizing 
head, " we'll have a Children's Party. I'll ask all 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



29 



under fifteen, and if some older ones come in, no 
matter; I hope they will. Of course the fathers 
and mothers are to come and look on, and have 
a real good time. We will have them in the 
New Hall. I wonder why they call it the New 
Hall ; there never was any old one. We will have 
some plain cake and lemonade, music, dancing, 
little games, and above all a Christmas Tree. 
There shall be gifts on it for all the children 
under twelve. The people who are well to do 
will give something to buy the gifts for children 
of their own standing, and you and I will make 
up what is wanting for the poor ones. We'll have 
little games as well as a dance. Mrs. Toombs, — 
Sally Wilkins that used to be, — the minister's wife, 
has a deal of skill in setting little folks to play; 
she has not had much use for it, poor thing, since 
her marriage, six or seven years ago. What a 
wild romp she used to be ! but as good as Sun- 
day all the time. Sally will manage the games; 
I'll see to the dancing." 

" The children can't dance," said Uncle Nathan ; 
"you know there never was a dancing-school in 
town." 



3° 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



"Yes they can," said Kindly. "The girls will 
dance by nature, and the boys will fall in, rather 
more clumsily of course. But it will do well 
enough for us. Besides, they have all had more 
practice than you think for. You shall get the 
pine-tree, or hemlock, and buy the things, — I'll 
tell you what, to-morrow morning, — and I will 
manage all the rest." 

The next morning it was fine, bright weather ; 
and the garments blossomed white on the clothes- 
lines all round the village; and with no small 
delight the housewives looked on these perennial 
hanging-gardens, periodically blooming, even in 
a New England winter. Uncle Nathan men- 
tioned his sister's plan to one of his neighbors, 
who said, " Never '11 go here ! " " But why not *? " 
" Oh, there's Deacon Willberate and Squire Allen 
are at loggerheads about the allusion to slavery 
which Rev. Mr. Freeman made in his prayer six 
months ago. They had a quarrel then, you know, 
and have not spoken since. If the Deacon likes it, 
the Squire won't, and vice versa. Then, Colonel 
Stearns has had a quarrel and a lawsuit with John 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. ^i 

Wilkinson about that little patch of meadow. 
They won't go ; each is afraid of meeting the 
other. Half the parish has some miff against the 
other half I believe there never was such a place 
for little quarrels since the Dutch took Holland. 
There's a tempest in every old woman's teapot. 
Widow Seedyweedy won't let her daughters come, 
because, as she says, you are a temperance man, 
and said, at the last meeting, that rum made many 
a widow in Soitgoes, and sent three quarters of 
the paupers to the almshouse. She declared, the 
next day, that you were ' personal, and injured 
her feelings; and 'twas all because you was rich 
and she was a poor lone widow, with nothing but 
her God to trust in.'" 

"Oh, dear me," said Uncle Nathan, "it is a 
queer world, — a queer world ; but after all it's the 
best we've got. Let us try to make it better still." 

Aunt Kindly could not sleep much all night 
for thinking over the details of the plan. Before 
morning it all lay clear in her mind. Monday 
afternoon she went round to talk with the neigh- 
bors and get all things ready. Most of them liked 



3^ 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



it ; but some thought it was " queer," and won- 
dered " what our pious fathers would think of 
keeping Christmas in New England." A few had 
" religious scruples," and would do nothing about 
it. The head of the Know-nothing lodge said it 
was "a Furrin custom, and I want none o' them 
things ; but Ameriky must be ruled by 'Mericans ; 
and we'll have no Disserlutions of the Union, and 
no Popish ceremonies like a Christmas Tree. If 
you begin so, you'll have the Pope here next, and 
the fulfilment of the seventeenth chapter of Reve- 
lations." 

Hon. Jeduthan Stovepipe also opposed it. He 
was a rich hatter from Boston, and a " great Dem- 
ocrat ; " who, as he said, had lately " purchased 
grounds in Soitgoes, intending to establish a fam- 
ily." He " would not like to have Cinderella 
Jane and Edith Zuleima mix themselves up with 
widow Wheeler's children, — whose father was 
killed on the railroad five or six years before, — 
for their mother takes in washing. No, Sir," said 
he; "it will not do. You have no daughters to 
marry, no sons to provide for. It will do well 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



33 



enough for you to talk about 'equality,' about 
' meeting the whole neighborhood,' and that sort 
of thing ; but I intend to establish a family ; and 
I set my face against all promiscuous assemblages 
of different classes in society. It is bad enough 
on Sundays, when each man can sit buttoned up 
in his own pew ; but a festival for all sorts and 
conditions of children, — it is contrary to the 
genius of our republican institutions." His wife 
thought quite differently; but the poor thing did 
not dare say her soul was her own in his presence. 
Aunt Kindly went off with rather a heavy heart, 
remembering that Jeduthan was the son of a man 
sent to the State Prison for horse stealing, and born 
in the almshouse at Bankton Four Corners, and 
had been bound out as apprentice by the select- 
men of the town. 

At the next house, Miss Robinson liked it ; but 
hoped she " would not ask that family o' niggers, 
— that would make it so vulgar ; " and she took 
a large pinch of Scotch snuff, and waddled off to 
finish her ironing. Mrs. Deacon Jackson — she 
was a second wife, with no children — hoped that 



34 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



" Sally Bright would not be asked, because her 
father was in the State Prison for passing coun- 
terfeit money ; and the example would be bad, not 
friendly to law and order." But as Aunt Kindly 
went out, she met the old Deacon himself, — one 
of those dear, good, kind souls, who were born to 
be deacons of the Christian religion, looking like 
one of the eight beatitudes ; and as you stopped 
to consider which of that holy family he most 
resembled, you found he looked like all of them. 
" Well ! " said he, " now ma'am, I like that. That 
will be a Christian Christmas, — not a Heathen 
Christmas. Of course you'll ask all the children 
of ' respectable people ; ' but I want the poor ones, 
too. Don't let anybody frighten you from asking 
Sip Tidy's children. I don't know that I like 
colored folks particularly, but I think God does, 
or he would not have colored 'em, you know. 
Then do let us have all of Jo Bright's little ones. 
When I get into the State Prison, I hope some- 
body '11 look after my family. I know you will. 
I don't mean to go there ; but who knows ? ' If 
everybody had his deserts, who would escape a 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



35 



flogging ? ' as the old saying is. Here's five dollars 
towards the expenses; and if that ain't enough, 
I'll make it ten. Elizabeth will help you make 
the cake, &c. You shall have as many eggs as 
you want. Hens hain't laid well since Thanks- 
giving; now they do nothing else." 

Captain Weldon let one iron cool on the anvil, 
and his bellows sigh out its last breath in the fire 
and burn the other iron, while he talked with Aunt 
Kindly about it. The Captain was a widower, 
about fifty years old, with his house fiall of sons 
and daughters. He liked it. Patty, his oldest 
daughter, could help. There were two barrels of 
apples, three or four dollars in money, and more 
if need be. " That is what I call the democracy of 
Christianity," said the good man. " I shall see half 
the people in the village ; they'll be in here to get 
their horses corked before the time comes, and I'll 
help the thing along a little. I'll bring the old folks, 
and we'll sing some of the old tunes ; all of us will 
have a real old-fashioned good time." Almira, his 
daughter, about eighteen years old, ran out to talk 
with Kindly, and offered to do all sorts of work. 



36 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

if she would only tell her what. " Perhaps Edward 
will come, too," said Kindly. "Do you want him?'" 
asked Almira. " Oh, certainly ; want all the lov- 
ers," replied she, — not looking to see how her face 
kindled, like a handsome morning in May. 

One sour old man, who lived off the road, 
did not like it. 'Twas a Popish custom ; and 
said, " I always fast on Christmas." His family 
knew they did, and many a day besides ; for he 
was so covetous that he grudged the water which 
turned his own mill. 

Mr. Toombs, a young minister, who had been 
settled six or seven years, and loved the command- 
ments of religion much better than the creed of 
theology, entered into it at once, and promised to 
come, and not wear his white cravat. His wife, 
Sally Wilkins that used to be, took to it with all 
her might. 

So all things were made ready. Farmers sent 
in apples and boiled chestnuts ; and there were 
pies, and cookies, and all manner of creature com- 
forts. The German who worked for the cabinet- 
maker decorated the hall, just as he had done in 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



37 



Wittenberg often before ; for he was an exile 
from the town where Martin Luther sleeps, and 
his Katherine, under the same slab. There were 
branches of Holly with their red berries, Winter- 
green and Pine boughs, and Hemlock and Laurel, 
and such other handsome things as New England 
can afford even in winter. Besides, Captain Weldon 
brought a great Orange-tree, which he and Susan 
had planted the day after their marriage, nearly 
thirty years before. " Like Christmas itself," as 
he said, — " it is a history and a prophecy ; full 
of fruit and flowers, both." Roses, and Gera- 
niums, and Chrysanthemums, and Oleanders were 
there, adding to the beauty. 

All the children in the village were there. Sally 
Bright wore the medal she won the last quarter at 
the Union School. Sip Tidy's six children were 
there; and all the girls and boys from the poor- 
house. The Widow Wheeler and her children 
thought no more of the railroad accident. Cap- 
tain Weldon, Deacon Jackson and his wife, and 
the Minister were there; all the Selectmen, and the 
Town Clerk, and the Schoolmasters and School- 



38 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

ma'ams, and the Know-nothing Representative 
from the South Parish; great, broad-shouldered 
farmers came in, with Baldwin apples in their 
cheeks as well as in their cellars at home, and 
their trim tidy wives. Eight or ten Irish chil- 
dren came also, — Bridget, Rosanna, Patrick, and 
Michael, and Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien themselves. 
Aunt Kindly had her piano there, and played and 
sung. 

Didn't they all have a good time ? Old Joe 
Roe, the black fiddler, from Beaver Brook, Mill 
Village, was over there ; and how he did play ! 
how they did dance ! Commonly, as the young 
folks said, he could play only one tune, " Joe Roe 
and I ; " for it is true that his sleepy violin did 
always seem to whine out, " Joe Roe and /, Joe 
Roe and I, yoe Roe and /." But now the old fiddle 
was wide awake. He cut capers on it ; and made it 
laugh, and cry, and whistle, and snort, and scream. 
He held it close to his ear, and rolled up the whites 
of his eyes, and laughed a great, loud, rollicking 
laugh; and he made his fiddle laugh, too, right out. 

The young people had their games. Boston, 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. Q^g 

Puss in the Corner, Stir you must, Hunt the 
Squirrel round the Woods, BUnd Man's BufF, and 
Jerusalem. Mr. Atkins, who buik the hall, and 
was a strict Orthodox man and a Know-nothing, 
got them to play " Break the Pope's neck," which 
made a deal of fun. The oldest people sung some 
of the old New England tunes, in the old New 
England way. How well they went off! in par- 
ticular, 

" How beauteous are their feet 
Who stand on Zion's Hill ; 
And bring salvation on their tongues, 
And words of peace reveal." 

But the great triumph of all was the Christmas 
Tree. How big it was ! a large stout Spruce in 
the upper part of the hall. It bore a gift for every 
child in the town. Two little girls had the whoop- 
ing cough, and could not come out; but there 
were two playthings for them also, given to their 
brothers to be taken home. St. Nicolas — it was 
Almira Weldon's lover — distributed the gifts. 

Squire Stovepipe came in late, without any of 
the " family " that he was so busy in " establish- 



40 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



ing," but was so cold that It took him a good 
while to warm up to the general temperature of 
the meeting. But he did at length ; and talked 
with the Widow Wheeler, and saw all her well- 
managed children, and felt ashamed of his mean- 
ness only ten days before. Deacon Willberate saw 
his son Ned dancing with Squire Allen's rosy 
daughter, Matilda, — for the young people cared 
more for each other than for all the allusions to 
slavery in all the prayers and sermons too, of the 
whole world, — and it so reminded him of the time 
when he also danced with his Matilda, — not openly 
at Christmas celebrations, but by stealth, — that he 
went straight up to his neighbor ; " Squire Allen," 
said he, " give me your hand. New Year's is a 
good day to square just accounts; Christmas is not 
a bad time to settle needless quarrels. I suppose 
you and I, both of us, may be wrong. I know I 
have been for one. Let by-gones be by-gones." 
" Exactly so," said the Squire, " I am sorry, for 
my part. Let us wipe out the old score, and chalk 
up nothing for the future but good feelings. If a 
prayer parted, perhaps a benediction will unite us ; 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 4 I 

for Katie and Ned look as if they meant we should 
be more than mere neighbors. Let us begin by- 
becoming friends." 

Colonel Stone took his youngest daughter, who 
had a club-foot, up to the Christmas tree for her 
present, and there met face to face with his ene- 
my's oldest girl, who was just taking the gift for 
her youngest brother, Robert, — holding him up in 
her bare arms that he might reach it himself But 
she could not raise him quite high enough, and 
so the Colonel lifted up the little fellow till he 
clutched the prize; and when he set him down, 
his hands full of sugar-cake, asked him, " Whose 
bright little five-year-old is this ? What is your 
name, blue eyes ? " " Bobbie Nilkison," was the 
answer. It went right to the Colonel's heart. "It 
is Christmas," said he ; " and the dear Jesus him- 
self said, ' Suffer little children to come unto me.' 
Well, well, he said something to us old folks, too : 
' If thy brother trespass against thee,' &c., and ' If 
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remem- 
ber that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
there thy gift before the altar; first be reconciled 



4-2 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.' " 
He walked about awhile, thinking, and then found 
his neighbor. "Mr. Wilkinson," said he, "it 
is bad enough that you and I should quarrel in 
law, but let us be friends in the gospel. As I 
looked at your little boy, and held him up in 
my arms, and found out whose son he was, I felt 
ashamed that I had ever quarrelled with his father. 
Here is my hand, if you think fit to take it." 
" With all my heart," said Wilkinson. " I fear I 
was more to blame than you. But we can't help 
the past ; let us make amends for the future. I 
hope we shall have many a merry Christmas to- 
gether in this world and the next. Perhaps Uncle 
Nathan can settle our land-quarrel better than any 
jury in Worcester county." 

Mr. Smith, the Know-nothing representative, 
was struck with the bright face of one of the 
little girls who wore a school-medal, and asked 
her name. " Bridget O'Brien, your honor," was 
the answer. " Well, well," said he, " I guess 
Uncle Nathan is half right ; ' it's all prejudice.' I 
don't like the Irish, politically. But after all, the 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 43 

Pope will have to make a pretty long arm to reach 
round Aunt Kindly, and clear through the Union 
School-house and spoil Miss Bridget, — a pretty 
long arm to do all that." 

So it went on all round the room. " That is 
what I call the Christian Sacrament," said Deacon 
Jackson to Captain Weldon. "Ah, yes," replied 
the blacksmith ; " it is a feast of love. Look there ; 
Colonel Stearns and John Wilkinson have not 
spoken for years. Now it is all made up. Both 
have forgotten that little strip of Beaver-gray 
meadow, which has cost them so much money 
and hard words, and in itself is not worth the 
lawyer's fees." 

How the children played ! how they all did 
dance ! and of the whole sportive company not 
one footed the measure so neat as little Hattie 
Tidy, the black man's daughter. " What a shame 
to enslave a race of such persons," said Mr. Stove- 
pipe. " Yet I went in for the Fugitive Slave Bill, 
and was one of Marshal Tukey's ' fifteen hundred 
gentlemen of property and standing.' May God 
forgive me ! " " Amen," said Mr. Broadside, a 



44 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

great, stout, robust farmer ; " I stood by till the 
Nebraska Bill put slavery into Kansas, then I went 
right square over to the anti-slavery side. I shall 
stick there forever. Dr. Lord may try and excuse 
slavery just as much as he likes. I know what 
all that means. He don't catch old birds with 
chaff" 

Uncle Nathan went about the room talking 
with the men and women ; they all knew him, 
and felt well acquainted with such a good-natured 
face; while Aunt Kindly, with the nicer tact of a 
good woman, introduced the right persons to each 
other, and so promoted happiness among those too 
awkward to obtain it alone or unhelped. Besides 
this, she took special care of the boys and girls 
from the poor-house. 

What an appetite the little folks had for the 
good things ! How the old ones helped them 
dispose of these creature comforts ! while such as 
were half way between, were too busy with other 
matters to think much of the eatables. Solomon 
Jenkins and Katie Edmunds had had a falling 
out. He was the miller at Stony Brook; but tlie 



TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 



45 



" course of true love never did run smooth " with 
him; he could not coax Katie's to brook into his 
stream; it would turn off some other way. But 
that night Katie herself broke down the hindrance, 
and the two little brooks became one great stream 
of love, and flowed on together, inseparable ; now 
dimpling, deepening, and whirling away full of 
beauty towards the great ocean of eternity. 

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kindly, how happy 
they were, seeing the joy of all the company! they 
looked like two new Redeemers, — which indeed 
they were. The minister said, — " Well, I have 
been preaching charity and forgiveness and a cheer- 
ful happiness all my life, now I see signs of the 
'good time coming.' There's forgiveness of inju- 
ries," pointing to Colonel Stearns and Mr. Wilkin- 
son ; " old enemies reconciled. All my sermons 
don't seem to accomplish so much as your Christ- 
mas Festival, Mr. Robinson," said he, addressing 
Uncle Nathan. " We only watered the ground," 
said Aunt Kindly, " where the seed was long since 
sown by other hands ; only it does seem to come 
up abundantly, and all at once." Then the minis- 



46 TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS. 

ter told the people a new Christmas story; and 
before they went home they all joined together and 
sung this hymn to the good tune of Old Hundred : 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run ; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 

Blessings abound where'er he reigns ; 
The prisoner leaps to loose his chains ; 
The weary find eternal rest, 
And all the sons of want are bless'd." 






mmuf^:!^^ O"" CONGRESS 

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